I knew ZIM would choke after doing all the right things just like they did in the first match. But when they got 100 odd for 1 and leading by 160+ with 9 wickets in the bag, I thought they were in with a good chance since its collapse expert Pakistan. Up till that point I had been heavily rooting for PAK. Once I saw ZIM with a clear upper hand at the end of day 3, I switched allegiances and rooted heavily for ZIM. They truly played better.

Course I have some selfish reasons as well. The more points ZIM accumulates (beating us 2-1, drawing with PAK 1-1) the more points we stand to gain back when we host ZIM.

PS - there was a story about pretty poor conditions in ZIM during this tour with hotels not having running water. Perhaps the same effect on PAK's players as it did on ours? After all you need the morning lota pani otherwise your asscrack will start itching by the first drinks break! BD ar PAK chhara baki shob team to shudu TP diye obhosto.

- forces BCB to rethink why we're so slow in progressing (hint eff the T20)
- lights a fire under our players butts to start performing against the likes of ZIM, WI, NZ, SL, and PAK
- forces ICC to intervene and rescue ZIM for the dire straits
- forces Jarvis and others to return to ZIM, thereby strengthening their cricket
- causes ICC to realize the value of "minnows" like ZIM, BD, IRE, AFG and stop leaving them out

A strong ZIM is good for BD because incidentally half of our matches are against them.

Originally Posted by Tiger Manc
Well done Zim! Great achievement for the underdogs! If Zimbabwe can do it, so can we.

not necessarily. in fact, most likely not.

cricket is the most "condition specific" team sport on earth. compare to basketball, football, hockey, baseball, soccer.

Also note all of ZIM's test wins. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. Notice a trend. 10 out of 11 wins in ZIM. ZIM can beat subcontinent sides at home. In fact, they would most likely struggle to beat subcontinent sides on the flatter Bulawayo tracks. They've won almost exclusively at Harare. Notice how Harare has been getting 2 tests back to back. Its a money saving as well as face saving ploy. And you can't blame them. What does BCB do? Let teams come and practice on the match wicket. ZIM takes advantage of their home conditions we give other teams the advantage. We'll lay out a highway in Mirpur so India can bat us out of the game and then lay a minefield for Ireland or Afghanistan or Zimbabwe so they can keep things close and almost beat us.

Also look at ZIM's batting and bowling averages home vs away since readmission in 2011. Albeit small sample size, but its more revealing than a bikini. They have a bigger home-away ratio than India does. Our team by comparison probably has a no difference or may actually perform better abroad than at home.

But one thing...I'll cut our boys a tincy wincy bit of slack for not wining the series against ZIM. At least they bounced back from utter annhilation to deliver a pretty decent 140 run defeat the very next test.

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
This is HUGE for Zimbabwe and for anyone who was living in denial, confirmation that they've gone past us and are a much, much better Test side. For us, #10 it is, our rightful place.

Zimbabwe is returning to the side of Flower bros., Campbell et co of old. Slowly but surely. We can no longer bully them and give'm a wedgie.

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
This is HUGE for Zimbabwe and for anyone who was living in denial, confirmation that they've gone past us and are a much, much better Test side. For us, #10 it is, our rightful place.

Well done to Zimbabwe. They deserved to win at least 1 match after they showed better batsmanship compared to Pakistan. Their proving to be a tough team at home. Next step for them is to compete outside of Zim. It seems that wherever they go outside of Zimbabwe, they seem to be clueless. If they can improve on that, they can be a decent Test team.

As for Pakistan, they have a lot to worry about playing SA next. They still seem to depend on Misbah and Younus too much. Others need to step up. Can't understand why Jamshed, Umar Akmal, and Shehzad are not in the squad. They seem much better than the others.

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
This is HUGE for Zimbabwe and for anyone who was living in denial, confirmation that they've gone past us and are a much, much better Test side. For us, #10 it is, our rightful place.

Agreed...admittedly I belonged to that camp as recently as the beginning of the second test. Even though our team has has shown glimpses of improvement of late, there's no way in the world we would've been able to pull off what Zim just did. What separates Zim from us is they've been able to compete against a top 8 team at a very high level two test matches in a row. Our reservoir of inspiration tends to run dry after one good fight, or we generally compete well when the series is lost.

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
This is HUGE for Zimbabwe and for anyone who was living in denial, confirmation that they've gone past us and are a much, much better Test side. For us, #10 it is, our rightful place.

We are #10 now?
if we beat nz in a test or draw then can we get back to single digit?

__________________
"- O Allah, forgive our sins and have mercy on us ! Help us through worst times and bless us with good ones, you are the ONE the only one to guide us to right path and save us from disasters.."

congratulations to Zim,
In Tests they are improving at a much faster rate than us.
what worked on their favor is that the key performers like Taylor & Mazakadza have performed, so did the bowlers.
Not taking anything away from Zim but this Pak team has been very weak specially since their tour to SAfrica.
Pak's batting line up looks weaker than us, they have Misbah & Younus, we have Tamim, Sakib,Mushy,Nasir.

Originally Posted by ReZ_1
We are #10 now?
if we beat nz in a test or draw then can we get back to single digit?

Com'n man...just because more states are legalizing Miss Jane these days, doesn't mean we have to overdose and DUI . Zimbabwe really zoomed past us with their win today now leading by 24 points.
Team Matches Points Rating
New Zealand 27 2126 79
Zimbabwe 11 372 34
Bangladesh 13 134 10

Since 2011, Zimbabwe's W/L ratio in Tests is not only better than ours, it's actually better than NZs even. Zimbabwe's W/L is 0.42 and NZ's is 0.36. Ours on the other hand is 0.12. So we more than deserve to be the 10th ranked team in Tests. Bottom line is that we have to start winning Tests. No more excuses. We have NZ at home right in front of us who has been the 2nd worst in Tests in the past 3 years. If we can't win even 1 Test against them, then the critics will start screaming louder especially since Zimbabwe just beat Pakistan.